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Sony Pictures Imageworks was formed in 1992 with five employees to use computers to help plan complicated scenes for live-action films.[4] Located in the former TriStar building, their first work was a previsualization for a 1993 film Striking Distance.[5]

To fill the gaps between VFX jobs, SPI decided to partake in a more profitable animation business.[6] Its first independent animated effort was the 5-minute short The ChubbChubbs! directed by Eric Armstrong. In 2002, it won the Oscar for Best Animated Short. Early Bloomer, released in 2003, was the division's second short film and originally made as a storyboarding exercise.[7] SPI completed its first feature animation project in 2006 with the release of Open Season.

In 2007, SPI acquired Indian visual effects studio FrameFlow to take advantage of lower labor costs.[6][8] Renamed to Imageworks India, a modern facility was opened in Chennai a year later.[9] To leverage New Mexico's tax rebates and talent base,[10] a satellite production facility was opened in 2007 in Albuquerque,[11] becoming the largest post-production operation in the state.[12] In 2010, SPI opened a production studio in Vancouver, British Columbia, in order to take advantage of the local talent pool and government film production incentives.[13] Two years later, the studio doubled its Vancouver facilities.[14] At the same time, the Albuquerque studio was closed down due to declining New Mexico's subsidies and difficulty with attracting artist to move there.[10]

In the beginning of 2014, as part of Sony's cost-cutting move, SPI transferred a portion of its technology team from its headquarters in Culver City to Vancouver.[6] By May 2014, entire headquarters and production had been moved to Vancouver, with only a small office remaining in Los Angeles.[15] At the same time, SPI closed down its Indian studio, laying off around 100 employees.[16] A year later, over 700 artists moved into a new 74,000-square feet headquarters in Vancouver.[17][18]